Chapter 220: Jibbery training.

Terca checked the analysis device.

The apparatus holding one of As's eyes was a portable analyzer. It read the mimicry data stored inside and broke down the emotions of the species in question by percentage.

Analysis Results:

Pride 45%

Love 30%

Self esteem 20%

Envy and jealousy 2%

Selfishness 0.5%

Frustration 0.1%....

Conclusion: Extremely unsuitable as a material for the emotion drug.

The aide standing beside Terca was Miley Philon. She wore makeup in the same style as his. The futuristic look suited her lively features remarkably well.

"Hmm... what a mess. These are completely useless."

"Didn't the field agent say there was a margin of error?"

"How big could it possibly be? There has to be a limit. This one is far too normal."

"Even so, shouldn't we wait for the final results before deciding?"

Bzzzt-

At that moment, she received a report, and her expression hardened.

"Commander, I've been informed that the field agent destroyed his remaining eye himself."

"What?"

For the first time, something close to surprise crossed Terca's impassive face.

That was how important "eyes" were to the Avikans.

"It was strange enough that he handed over one eye without a fight, but he destroyed the other one himself? Hmm..."

"Isn't that suspicious? We could bring him back and torture him-"

"Forget it. We proceed as planned. How much difference could correcting the data possibly make?"

"But-"

"If an Avikan is willing to give up his eyes, killing him won't make him tell us why."

"Then perhaps we could send another field agent-"

"Use your head! The Bambua colony is practically finished already. We're at the point where we need to find a substitute as soon as possible, and you're suggesting we send in another agent, have them mimic the natives, and gather intelligence all over again?"

"...I didn't think it through."

Terca took As's eye from the analyzer and closed his hand around it.

Greed crept across his face.

"We wasted our time, so we might as well get something out of it. The eye of a scholar. I wonder how the world would look through this."

Greed appeared on his cold looking aide's face as well.

On Avikan, eyes were collectors, data storage devices, and their greatest form of wealth.

"He'll be listed as missing. Poor bastard, having to live out his life on this primitive planet. Let's move on to the next candidate site."

"Yes, Commander."

The gamble had paid off.

?After finishing her shoot, Miley Philon headed toward Erhi Dever.

Click, click-

Erhi tensed slightly as the glamorous beauty in cybernetic makeup approached her.

Miley was already one of Hollywood's top actresses. Hadn't she been laughing and chatting casually with Derek McCurdy just a little while ago?

Seeing the challenging expression on Miley's face as she approached, Erhi braced herself for a scolding.

Things had gotten better now, but early in the shoot, she had taken her share of direct and indirect hostility from passing staff members. Most of it came in the form of looks wondering what kind of connections had landed her the female lead, or barbed "advice" warning her not to ruin a perfectly prepared production.

"Hello."

"Yes, hello."

"This is just what my face looks like."

"...Excuse me?"

"I'm not trying to pick a fight. My expression just naturally looks like this."

What was that? Could she read minds or something...?

Then Miley Philon abruptly threw out another completely unexpected remark.

"I feel sorry for you too. Of all directors, your first project had to be with Director Kyler."

"...I'm extremely satisfied with that."

Erhi's tone stiffened slightly.

She could tolerate criticism of her own shortcomings. What she could not tolerate was anyone looking down on this wonderful production, the director who had given her this opportunity, or the actors and staff working beside her.

As though she had noticed Erhi going on guard, Miley smirked.

"Tougher than you look. Relax. I'm only saying it because I've been through the same thing and I'm worried about you as a senior."

"...?"

"As someone who debuted in one of the director's films, I mean you should prepare yourself to spend the rest of your career thirsty, no matter what project you encounter."

...Come to think of it, Miley Philon had debuted in one of Kyler's films.

Erhi had heard there had been some controversy at the time over an unknown nineteen year old actress being cast in the lead.

Of course, all those rumors had vanished once Philosophia premiered.

"Director Kyler's scripts and characters are like custom tailored clothes."

"Yes... I know how unbelievably fortunate I am that he gave me a role that fits me perfectly."

"But is it really fortunate?"

"......"

"You put on the most perfectly fitted, comfortable, and beautiful outfit you'll ever wear in your entire life, and you wore it first. After that, every time you put on something else, you'll think the same thing. Ah, this is uncomfortable. It doesn't suit me very well either. Isn't there anything like that outfit I wore back then?"

Erhi understood.

Miley was talking about herself now.

A faintly bitter smile touched her lips as she continued.

"Enjoy this happiness as much as you can while it lasts, and once it's over, I hope you realize something quickly. An actor isn't someone who wears custom tailored clothes. An actor is someone who reshapes their own body to fit the clothes.

No. Maybe the role is the person, and we're nothing more than clothes the role puts on. That's why the higher you climb, the less the actor chooses the role. Eventually, the role chooses the actor."

The words struck her like the toll of a bell.

Miley looked nothing like the glamorous star Miley Philon just then. Instead, she reminded Erhi of Sophie, the protagonist of Philosophia, a girl who had seen countless sides of the world at a young age and come away with her own hard won understanding of it.

Only someone who had quietly lived through that exact experience could have offered such a truth.

"But there are actors who can choose their roles. Real actors who can transform themselves into clothes that fit any role one hundred percent. Like Derek, or that Mr. Yu Myeong over there."

She looked toward Yu Myeong, who was talking with the director on the far side of the set, a hungry gleam entering her eyes.

"That's the one thing I envy you for. You happened to get the role of a lifetime, and you got to act opposite someone like that."

"...Yes. I think I'll be very jealous of who I am right now too."

"Haha. You're an interesting one."

Miley gave her a wink that even another woman would have found irresistible, then walked away.

?The final day of filming arrived.

"Ahh... I can't believe today's the last day."

"As... we'll never see our As again. Sob-"

"I liked As even at the beginning, when he was flirting with practically everyone in sight. But then this guy who was so smooth with everything experienced real feelings for the first time and started yearning after Hetty like some awkward idiot... haaa."

"...That part hit me hard too..."

The female staff members sighed and lamented among themselves.

The male staff could not quite bring themselves to join the conversation, but inwardly, they were nodding along.

As Predator's appeal knew no gender.

And there was one person here who understood his charm more clearly than anyone.

Erhi Dever.

Ever since the day Miley Philon visited the set, Erhi had been lost in thought.

Is Hetty really a role tailored to me...?

No.

Of course, Erhi and Hetty had much in common. Neither had much presence, and both were easily overlooked by others. Both loved the piano.

But Erhi did not think the fierce beauty that made Hetty who she was had come from her.

If anything... she's like Mr. Yu Myeong.

People captivated by his powerful presence and vivid charisma would never notice it.

But through the eyes of "Hetty," who had faced him over and over inside the frame, Erhi had seen it.

Why did a man with that kind of talent still carry the desperation of someone clawing his way up from the very bottom?

Why, despite that desperation, was he never servile?

Why did he seem so solid, and yet so dangerously close to throwing everything away?

That's Hetty herself.

So Hetty had not been a perfectly tailored role for Erhi.

If anything, Erhi had struggled desperately to imitate Hetty's strength.

And... she had sincerely wanted to become like her.

The role didn't fit me perfectly. But I want to become someone who fits a role like that perfectly.

When she took on other roles in the future, would she writhe with the unfillable emptiness Miley had described?

No. Miley did not understand that even the premise of Erhi being cast in another role was a luxury to her.

Should any opportunity come her way, she would give it her whole heart, just as Hetty did.

Even if it was only the smallest bit part, she would act without ever forgetting how precious the chance was.

Long ago, Erhi had fallen gravely ill and nearly died.

When she miraculously survived, she made a decision.

She would live her life doing the things she would regret leaving undone.

That was why, more than any other line, she had been able to speak Hetty's words with complete sincerity.

-I'd rather die than live a life where I can't be true to what I want and love.

For her, acting was not a means to an end.

It was the end itself.

That was why she had never despaired, even surrounded by dazzling stars she could not begin to compare herself to.

And even if all she ever received from now on were roles infinitely more insignificant than Hetty, she would not despair so long as she could keep acting.

?The final scene showed the now blind As and Hetty living together once more.

At last, he wore a "real smile," filled with emotion.

And at the very end, the camera returned to As's point of view one final time.

His point of view now was darkness.

Before a pitch black world in which nothing could be seen, his final monologue sounded in a quiet voice.

"Avikans, whose emotions are fading away, have already lost their most primal emotions.

But I am directly experiencing an emotion that Avikans do not possess.

Only toward one person.

Hetty.

Mimicry is a survival strategy used by weak life forms.

Yet Avikans mimic others despite being the strongest predators in the universe. Could what appears strongest also, in some ways, be the weakest?

Just as the woman beside me appears the weakest, yet is the strongest."

And with that, filming on Mimicry came to an end.

"Cut! Great work, everyone!"

Clapclapclapclapclapclap-

Taking in the long applause, Yu Myeong slowly opened his eyes.

As his eyes, shut for so long, adjusted to the light, the first thing he saw was the face of Hetty, whom he had wanted to see all this time.

No.

The face of the partner who had spent the past several months beside him.

Erhi Dever.

When looking at her made his chest ache, was that As's heart?

Or was it Yu Myeong's own, looking at an actor facing struggles similar to those he had endured in his first life?

Yu Myeong asked Miho, who had come to stand beside him.

Isn't there anything we can do for Erhi? Maybe she could make a contract with another spirit...

{Do ya think there's another sucker like me out there?}

Yu Myeong flinched at that.

The price of gaining vitality was probably never something minor in the first place.

Even Miho had originally approached Yu Myeong with an agenda of her own.

{Don't worry so much. She's not as bad as you were. Her vitality's probably close to forty now, so if she keeps acting for another ten or fifteen years, she'll get up to around fifty. She won't benefit from vitality at that point, but at least it won't hold her back anymore.}

It won't be easy to keep acting for ten or fifteen years in that state without giving up...

{You did it. And you were worse off than she is.}

......

{If she loves acting as much as you do, she'll be rewarded someday too. So stop fussing over her.}

Yu Myeong let out a small sigh.

Miho was not wrong.

But because he knew better than anyone how brutal that road was, he could not simply look the other way.

He approached Erhi and asked,

"Erhi, do you have some time after this?"

"Uh... yes. But I heard there's a wrap party today?"

"It'll take the staff a few hours to pack up the equipment and for everyone to gather anyway. Want to practice with me for a bit?"

"Practice?"

Filming was already over. What were they supposed to practice...?

Erhi looked puzzled, but nodded without complaint.

"Of course. I'd be grateful if you looked over my practice."

They headed to a rehearsal room, where Yu Myeong taught Erhi a particular training method.

"Erhi. Do you know Strasberg's gibberish exercise?"

"...Yes, I do."

"This is a method that adapts it a little."